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orange barrels on I-270

Transportation Budget Passes House Committee, Moves Toward Floor Vote

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (Statehouse News Bureau) — The $8 billion state transportation budget goes to the floor of the Ohio House tomorrow, after it was overwhelmingly approved by a House committee Wednesday. After just under a month since its introduction, House Finance Committee chair Rep. Scott Oelslager (R-North Canton) reported the vote count on the two year transportation budget:… Read More

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Ohio Department of Job and Family Services

More Unemployment Claims Flagged For Possible Fraud, Slowing Down Benefits

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (Statehouse News Bureau) — Filings for unemployment benefits had been slowly ticking up in January. But the last two weeks of reported numbers show an explosion of claims. And the state’s job and family services agency is now flagging tens of thousands of claims filed in those last two weeks. Around 50,000 jobless claims… Read More

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Josh Mandel

Former Ohio Treasurer Mandel Is First Republican To Announce For Senate

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (Statehouse News Bureau) — Republicans have their first official candidate for the 2022 US Senate race.  Former state treasurer Josh Mandel is launching his third try at that office. Josh Mandel has been out of office since 2018, when he was term limited as state treasurer. But it’s not a big surprise that… Read More

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Rep. Larry Householder (R-Glenford) talked to reporters on September 1, 2020, after returning to the House for the first time since his July arrest in a $61 million bribery scheme.

Another Plea Deal In Householder/Nuclear Bailout Corruption Case

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (Statehouse News Bureau) — There’s another plea deal in the federal corruption case involving Republican former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder (R-Glenford), the former chair of the Ohio Republican Party and a utility widely believed to be FirstEnergy. That case has been called the largest bribery scandal in state history. The dark money… Read More

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Signs reading "We're all in this together" decorate the windows of a nursing home facility in northeast Columbus.

Proposed Budget Gives Ohio Department Of Health More Power To Shutter “Unsafe” Nursing Homes

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (Statehouse News Bureau) — More than half of the state’s COVID-19 deaths coming from nursing homes. So those and other long term care facilities are getting a lot of attention in the new state budget. The Patient Protection proposal in the budget would give the Ohio Department of Health the power to shut down nursing… Read More

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The Ohio Statehouse

Nearly 200 Show Support For Lawmakers’ Panel That Could Strike Down Health Orders

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (Statehouse News Bureau) — Nearly two hundred people offered testimony in an Ohio Senate committee in support of a Republican-backed bill that would allow a panel of lawmakers to reject a health order from the governor, and to limit states of emergency to 30 days. Rishanne Golden has blamed her 20-year-old daughter’s death in… Read More

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The Ohio Department of Medicaid building

$2.4 Billion In Federal Medicaid Funds Helps Ohio Avoid Big Budget Hole

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (Statehouse News Bureau) — The increase in Ohio Medicaid caseloads could have blown a hole in the new two-year state budget. But the spending plan includes a huge infusion of federal cash for the state’s largest part of the budget, the health insurance program for the poor. The federal government is continuing a temporary… Read More

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Jim Jordan

Jordan Out Of Ohio US Senate Race To Replace Portman

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WASHINGTON, D.C. (Statehouse News Bureau) — A big development in the upcoming race for US Senate in 2022, with Republican incumbent Rob Portman saying he’s no longer running. One high profile possible candidate is out. A spokesman for Congressman Jim Jordan (R-04, Urbana) says he won’t be running for Portman’s seat. But the spokesman says Jordan,… Read More

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The Ohio Statehouse

Republicans Propose Committee To Oversee, Strike Down Governor’s Health Orders

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (Statehouse News Bureau) — State lawmakers are starting their new session with an issue that dominated much of last year – the governor’s power to issue health orders that legislators might not like. Sen. Rob McColley (R-Napoleon) said his bill creates a bipartisan committee of lawmakers which could strike down an order from the… Read More

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Power lines

Should State Utility Regulators Be Elected Or Selected?

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (Statehouse News Bureau) — The $61 million bribery scandal involving Ohio’s nuclear plant bailout law and a utility widely believed to be FirstEnergy has brought new attention to the commission that regulates utilities. The chair of the Public Utilities Commission resigned in November after an FBI raid on his home. All this has some suggesting PUCO commissioners… Read More

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Ohio Highway Patrol troopers and Ohio National Guard personnel were at the Ohio Statehouse starting this weekend and continuing through Wednesday.

Security Remains High At Ohio Statehouse On Inauguration Day

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (Statehouse News Bureau) — On this inauguration day, security remains high at the Ohio Statehouse after preparations for a weekend armed march that never fully materialized. They included a stepped-up increase of law enforcement and limited access to the building. Gov. Mike DeWine said there were “credible threats” of violence directed at Ohio, which led him to authorize 580… Read More

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Shio State Troopers and National Guard stand watch at the Ohio Statehouse on Jan. 17 during the planned "armed protest," which remained peaceful.

“Armed March” On Ohio Statehouse Features Conspiracy Theories And Guns, But Stays Peaceful

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (Statehouse News Bureau) — The planned “armed march” that was expected in all 50 state capitals and brought out heavy security resulted in just a few dozen protestors at the Ohio Statehouse. People describing themselves as the Ohio Boogaloo, along with supporters of Donald Trump and Joe Biden, shared space on the Statehouse… Read More

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Gov. Mike DeWine

DeWine Opposes Effort By Many Republicans To Overturn Biden’s Win

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (Statehouse News Bureau) — Ohio’s Republican Sen. Rob Portman says he opposes objections to certification of the electoral college results on Wednesday, though it’s expected at least five Ohio Congressmen will object, along with many other Republicans. Gov. Mike DeWine – a fellow Republican and supporter of President Trump – is now saying… Read More

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President Trump and Joe Biden in a screenshot from the debate in Cleveland on September 29.

2020 Year In Review – Ohio Presidential Election Broke Record, Tradition

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (WOUB) — A year ago, 2020 looked like it was going to be another busy election year in Ohio. But with the pandemic crowding out most other news and keeping candidates off the campaign trail, the presidential election took several unexpected turns. At the start of 2020, it looked like it was going… Read More

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Ohio’s Electors Vote For Trump, Cast Unfounded Doubts On Election Results

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (Statehouse) — All 538 members of the Electoral College voted across the country Monday – including the 18 electors in Ohio. It’s a process described in law and with lots of formality, but little suspense. Ohio’s 18 electors were pledged to President Donald Trump. So when Ohio campaign adviser Bob Paduchik, the chair… Read More

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Prisons Head: Staff And Inmates Should Be In Next Round Of Vaccines

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (Statehouse News Bureau) — When Ohio gets its first shipments of the COVID-19 vaccine, medical professionals, residents and staff at long-term care facilities and EMS workers will be first in line. But it’s unclear where those in the more controversial congregate setting of prisons might end up on the vaccine priority list. 109… Read More

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In this November 2005 file photo, Larry Greene, public information director of the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, demonstrates how a curtain is pulled between the death chamber and witness room at the prison in Lucasville, Ohio.

Anti-Death Penalty Advocates Pleased DeWine Says Lethal Injection Appears “Impossible”

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (Statehouse News Bureau) — Anti-death penalty advocates are reacting to comments from Gov. Mike DeWine, who said in an Associated Press interview that lethal injection “appears to us to be impossible from a practical point of view”. DeWine stopped executions after he took office last year, after a federal judge found Ohio’s lethal injection method… Read More

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Construction on Licking Heights High School last year. That is among many school building projects funded by the Ohio Schools Facilities Commission, which gets money from the capital budget.

Ohio Lawmakers Get First Look At Long-Delayed Capital Budget

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (Statehouse News Bureau) — Lawmakers are finally getting a look at the $2.5 billion state capital improvements budget, delayed for months by the pandemic. State budget director Kim Murnieks told the House Finance Committee the state’s infrastructure and construction budget prioritizes the needs of state government, K-12 and higher education with projects that create… Read More

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The Ohio Statehouse building

Finance Committee Chair: Ohio School Funding Overhaul Is Dead In Senate

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (Statehouse News Bureau) — A key Republican lawmaker says the Cupp-Patterson school funding plan that passed the House overwhelmingly is dead in the Senate. Senate Finance Committee chair Matt Dolan (R-Chagrin Falls) said he applauds those from both parties who spent years on the Cupp-Patterson plan, which was discussed extensively before being formally introduced in… Read More

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The Southern Ohio Correctional Facility

Inmate Population Decreases During Pandemic, But ACLU Still Concerned

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (Statehouse News Bureau) — There have been 115 confirmed or probable COVID-19 inmate deaths and 7 staff deaths in Ohio’s prison system. The prison population has been reduced because of COVID, but advocates say the facilities are still overcrowded and dangerous. As of this week, the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction said there were… Read More

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FirstEnergy Corp.'s Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station in Oak Harbor, Ohio.

Chair Of Committee Hearing Nuclear Bailout Repeal Bills Puts Foward A Delay

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (Statehouse News Bureau) — There’s a new twist in the possible repeal of Ohio’s controversial nuclear bailout law – a plan to delay the $150 million the state will collect next year for its two nuclear power plants. It comes from the head of a special House committee hearing proposals to repeal the bailout…. Read More

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A row of desks in a classroom with a backpack hanging up on the back wall

School Funding Bill Sponsor Hopes To See It Passed Before He Leaves Office

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (Statehouse News Bureau) — The term-limited sponsor of a plan to overhaul Ohio’s school funding system says he’s hopeful it will pass before he leaves the House at the end of this month.  The measure could be voted on in a House committee Wednesday. Rep. John Patterson (D-Jefferson) and Rep. Bob Cupp (R-Lima) got two-thirds of… Read More

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A picture inside of a hospital

Ohio Hospitals Considering “Creative” Options As COVID Cases Climb

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (Statehouse News Bureau) — Monday was the third day in a row for record numbers of COVID-19 hospitalizations in Ohio. That has health care facilities considering their options. The numbers of COVID patients in Ohio hospitals are more than double what they were a month ago, and hospitalizations have set a record nearly every… Read More